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US Still Leads the World in Military Spending

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The U.S. has long spent more on its military than any other country in the world, and that trend continued in 2017, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

U.S. military expenditures in 2017 came to $610 billion, unchanged from the year before.

The U.S. accounted for more than a third of global defense spending, while the five biggest spenders – the U.S., China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India – accounted for 60 percent. Of that group, only Russia decreased its spending in 2017; Russian military expenditures fell by 20 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to the report.

Global military spending rose to a post-Cold War high of $1.7 trillion in 2017, an increase of 1.1 percent over the year before. That represents 2.2 percent of global GDP, the report notes, or about $230 per person.